#desks

Yes...well...kinda...

President Nixon and President Ford both used what was called the "Wilson Desk" instead of the more famous Resolute Desk used by most modern Presidents in the Oval Office.

Nixon was an admirer of Woodrow Wilson and mistakenly believed that the "Wilson Desk" had been used by President Wilson during World War I. It was then believed that instead of Woodrow Wilson, the desk had actually belonged to Henry Wilson, who served two years as Ulysses S. Grant's second-term Vice President before dying in office in 1875.

But, it turns out that the "Wilson Desk" was never used by President OR Vice President Wilson. It was purchased by Garrett A. Hobart, who was William McKinley's first-term Vice President (Vice President Hobart also died in office), and used in the Vice President's Room in the Senate wing of the U.S Capitol. Somewhere along the way, it was erroneously believed that the desk had been used by Presidents McKinley and Wilson, but it now seems that the desk was almost always used by VICE Presidents at the Capitol, beginning with VP Hobart in 1898. Nixon became familiar with the desk because he also used it when he was Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961). When Lyndon Johnson succeeded Nixon as Vice President, the "Wilson Desk" ended up in Texas at the LBJ Ranch for a while. LBJ may have even used the desk at the LBJ Ranch while he was President. (President Johnson didn't use the "Wilson" OR Resolute desks in the Oval Office during his Presidency -- he used a desk that he had previously used while serving in the Senate, and that desk is now on display at the LBJ Library's replica Oval Office exhibit in Austin.) LBJ's Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey seems to be the first VP since Hobart originally ordered the "Wilson" desk who did not use it during his Vice Presidency. When Nixon was inaugurated as President in 1969, he immediately sought out the "Wilson Desk" for the Oval Office.